Final Term
by Pyronic
Summary: The end of the world is coming, whether it's wanted or not. It's time for Max, and the rest of the flock, to face their preset, heartwrenching destinies. FangMax. Warning: Rating will change down the road.


_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride, or any of its characters. James Patterson does. I do not make any profit from this story, nor do I intend for it to be any form of slander. End._

_**Summary: **Set eleven months after SOF. The end of the world is coming, whether they want it to or not. It's time for Max, and her flock, to face their preset, heart-wrenching destiny. Fang/Max._

_**Warnings: **Violence, language, spoilers for Maximum Ride: School's Out – Forever, some angst, OOCness (I'll try really hard not to, but it happens), and an author who's a little pissed off right now. –cocks eyebrow- Enjoy._

**_Prologue_**

_The end of the world – the event that causes it, anyway – is always a burden on the minds of humanity. Sometimes, it is nothing more than a throbbing thought that is quickly squashed by ideas of shopping or something else of equal unimportance. Other times, it is the dominating concern, prominent enough to cause a full-blown, painful-as-hell migraine._

_For those who cannot bring themselves to bring themselves to believe in the Second Coming of Christ, there are more …entertaining ideas of the end of the world. Some believe that aliens from another, undiscovered planet will take over the Earth and massacre the human race. Others have devised government scandals of fatal toxins that escape into civilization and wipe out ever life force on the planet. There have been a few who invented ever robophobic's fear of self-aware computers and deadly terminators, whose soul purpose is to kill every homo-sapien in sight._

_Stupid, hypothetical theories that were always more suited to the big screen in Hollywood than accepted as actual possibilities._

_The reality of the situation is much, much worse than any could have ever imagined. And though it is on the mind of every human being on the planet, only a select few know that its birth is just around the corner._

**0o0**

Cincinnati, Ohio. Though a relatively busy city in its own right, and widely known, it was not a name that would catch the attention of someone who did not live there. It was an ideal location for a person who wanted to live in a city, but not one that had an infamously high crime rate. What you did was your won business, so long as it wasn't something deadly or illegal. Either no one cared, or were just far too busy to notice.

Therefore, barely anyone noticed the growing activities at the tall, white Itex building. And for that, John Gohagan was extremely thankful.

The destruction of the Itex building in Tampa, Florida, though it had been easily covered up as an employee error, had attracted unneeded toward other Itex. It had been nearly a year since the incident at Itex Head Quarters (or what had _been_ Head Quarters), yet the talk of it amongst employees was still as strong as it had been the day after the attack had happened. John himself was guilty of whispering rumors of "the flock".

Max. Fang. Iggy. Nudge. Gasman. Angel.

They were six out of thousands of experiments that Itex had created within its countless labs. An insignificant number at first glance. However, they were the only six who had showed any promise at all. The only ones who had hyped up the hopes of the powerful company. One of them would be the lucky tool Itex would use to achieve world domination.

That "lucky tool" had been Max – Maximum Ride. The oldest of the six, and by far the most powerful. Her potential, whilst confined at the School, was almost limitless when she was let loose to work on her own. Unlike the others that she had adopted as her "family". Itex had placed this well-crafted war machine in the supposedly capable hands of Jeb Batchelder. They needed her to be trained up, and quickly, in some place that wasn't going to hinder her. Jeb had promised to do exactly that, and for four years, he had done a wonderful job.

But then the unimaginable had happened.

Maximum Ride had been conceived as a normal child. She had been well-developed before they had been able to turn her into an Avian-hybrid. It was something they had never done before, and for a while, it seemed as though that had been the key to a successful hybrid. But the development Max had gone through had given her a sense of humanity a tool had no right having. She had formed a mind of her own – a strong will that would prove near fatal to their plans. She became rebellious, rude, _alive_. Unfortunately, they had not known of such repercussions until after they had performed the same procedure on the other five.

Thus, Itex now had six very dangerous, self-aware human-avian-hybrids on their hands.

Since they had managed to escape the School, and had broken into the Institute, Itex had marked them for extermination. They had created a Max II to replace the pawn they had lost, and though she lacked some of Max's more refined skills, she had been acceptable enough to fulfill her first assignment – destroying the flock. They had managed to capture the real Max, and replace her with their newly-developed clone. Everything had been going perfectly. Max had been in their hands, and Max II was leading the other five to their own demises.

But something had happened. Betrayal, from someone highly connected to the experiments and the School. After the battle in Head Quarters, it quickly became obvious to everyone in Itex that they had lost control of their project. Max II had been compromised, and was working for the betrayer instead of them. The hybrids, the Erasers, their top scientists. Everything was slipping away from them, and it was not something that they would allow to be taken away without a fight.

And, suddenly, the top priority went from _killing_ Max, to getting her back.

John sneered at the though as he strode silently down the left-wing corridor of the Itex building.

For eleven months, the experiments had managed to keep off of their radars. They had heard nothing from them – heard of no sightings of them, no wild rumors. Even Jeb, who somehow always knew where Max was, couldn't find her anywhere.

"John!" Called a familiar voice from down the hallway. Henry Jones, young, but so intelligent one would think that he was one of their experiments, was waving him down. "I thought you wouldn't want to come along."

John snorted, and gave his young colleague a dismissive wave.

"I've been searching for her for eleven damn months. Why would you think I wouldn't be there for her capture?"

**_To Be Continued_**

_I'm in a writing frenzy, I swear. I have ANOTHER X-Men fic sitting on paper right now, waiting for me to type it up. Ugh. But it's fun._

_Since I'm forseeing this question popping up, yes, Itex is in charge of the experiments_. _Don't know if this is true or not (and I call myself a fan), but, yeah. And sorry if I got the location of Itex HQ messed up. Oops?_

_So, this fic is going to be more intense than the books (no offence, Mr. Patterson!), just so you know. There's also going to be a lot of twists and such that you won't have ever seen coming (or will you?), that will totally make this story worth while. _

_Gotta go, now. Have that fic to do. _

_Hasta la vista!_

_-Me_


End file.
